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Breathe Your Way to Relaxation

By Suze Angel, M.A., Certified Feldenkrais Movement Therapist

You emerge from the warm comfort of your mother’s womb.  Your first task is learning how to breathe.  Did the doctor slap your tiny bottom to get that started?  My 91 year-old client swears that initial spanking caused him to tense up so much he has never been able to relax.

Breathing seems simple, but by adulthood most of us breathe in a very limited range.  Smoking, anxiety from stress, and “sucking in your gut” to create that flat stomach interfere with the mechanics of breathing.  As you inhale, the diaphragm pushes against the contents of the lower abdomen and causes it to protrude. That creates a vacuum in the lungs which pulls the air in to fill them without effort and then the chest expands. Your belly expands with the inhalation and then flattens naturally with the exhalation because the diaphragm moves back up toward the rib cage and pushes air out of the lungs.  It functions just like the diaphragm of a pump.

Get the feeling of how to do this by imagining unzipping the zipper of a very tight pair of jeans.  Your belly spills out all the way down to your pubis as you breathe in.  Pause momentarily to appreciate the full relaxation of your abdomen.  Then zip up the zipper as you pull your belly inward and upward toward the ribs with a strong contraction as you exhale.  Practice diaphragmatic breathing to tone your abdominal muscles which will create better posture and support for your internal organs.  This mental focus on breathing will calm you for better sleep, improved sports performance and increased vitality.